Tra Co national tourism site in Mong Cai city of the north-eastern province of Quang Ninh is a popular destination.
It is endowed with beautiful beaches as well as home to relics and landscapes recognised at the provincial and national level.
Tra Co beach is one of the longest, nearest to the border shared with China, most primitive and most romantic beaches in Viet Nam that attracts a large number of visitors annually.
It is about 10 kilometres northeast of Mong Cai city. Visitors could travel there by bus.
The beach is about 17 kilometres long from the Got Cape in the north to the Ngoc Cape in the south. The water was so turquoise and clean that one could see mountains and rows of greenish trees reflected on the water.
Tra Co also boasts favourable infrastructure and technical conditions along with convenient services to serve a large number of tourists.
It was recognised as a national tourism site in April 2019 by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
The site covers an area of 44,036 hectares, including 18,238 hectares of the land area and 25,798 hectares of the water surface.
Its North is adjacent to Ka Long river, the South is near the East sea while the East is bordering China and the West is adjacent to Hai Yen ward in Mong Cai city.
The recognition of Tra Co national tourism site has affirmed the new position and brand of the Mong Cai tourism sector, creating a momentum and opportunities to develop tourism into a local spearhead economy.
Annually, Mong Cai city – which is considered an invaluable pearl of the north-eastern region - attracts over 2 million visitors, including nearly 300,000 holidaymakers staying on for longer.
The city is blessed with beautiful natural scenes, well-known architectural works, clean environment, convenient transportation, delicious cuisine, friendly people, and cultural diversity.
Over the past time, the city has spent big on developing tourism sites and focused on implementing the Politburo’s resolution on implementing measures to develop tourism into a spearhead economy.
Mong Cai has carried out key tourism projects, focusing on investment in developing technical infrastructure.
Specifically, the city has completed the upgrading of the Mong Cai – Tra Co road and accelerated the construction of the road through the Vinh Thuc island.
It also improved technical infrastructure at Mong Cai international border gate while continuously upgrading sites in Tra Co tourism site.
Besides promoting sustainable tourism development and creation of new tourism products, the city also pays attention to improving human resources training, reforming administrative procedures, and perfecting the investment environment.
With these efforts, the city welcomes over 2.7 million tourists in 2018.
In the first six months of 2019, the city greeted more than 1.6 million holidaymakers, showing a year-on-year increase of 8 percent.
In early July this year, the land clearance for the construction of Van Don – Mong Cai highway was completed, helping speed up the implementation of the project, which is scheduled to be put into operation in 2021.
The highway will serve as an important transport gateway linking Viet Nam and China and countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), helping connect Vietnamese northern localities with ASEAN and China, thus creating a momentum to bolster regional connectivity.
Once completed, it will connect with the Hai Phong-Ha Long and Ha Long-Van Don highways, creating the longest highway in Viet Nam that runs from the northwestern province of Lao Cai to Mong Cai via Hanoi and northern port city of Hai Phong.
It will also create a complete “backbone” with a total length of nearly 200km, making it easier for the attraction of investment to promote marine economy, socio-economic development, tourism and international trade through Mong Cai border gate.
The completion of the Van Don – Mong Cai highway is also expected to facilitate access to the Van Don international airport, which was put into operation in December 2018.
The airport is hoped to help Quang Ninh achieve its target of welcoming 15-16 million tourists, including 7 million foreigners, by 2020 and 30 million arrivals, including 15 million foreigners, by 2030. Therefore, local authorities have been offering many incentives to promote the launch of flights to the airport, the first of its kind invested by a private business in Viet Nam.